Four years after being elected on a promise to fight organized crime with “hugs, not bullets,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is now taking steps to increase the military’s role in public security. In doing so, he hopes to contain a renewed surge in gang-related violence. But degrading the power of Mexico’s drug cartels will require more than just sending the army onto the streets.
Last month, clashes between armed gangs left more than 200 people dead and dozens of businesses destroyed, underscoring the deterioration in security under López Obrador. Although homicide rates have dipped since the start of the pandemic, much of Mexico remains extraordinarily violent. The country is home to the world’s eight most dangerous cities, according to one research group. “Disappearances” have skyrocketed over the last decade. In 2021, close to 45,000 Mexicans fled their homes out of fear of violence, five times as many as in the previous year.
One U.S. military estimate says that up to a third of Mexico is “ungoverned space,” largely controlled by criminal organizations. López Obrador disputes that figure — and yet by most every measure, drug cartels have grown in number, potency and riches, buoyed by demand for illegal drugs in the U.S. Mexico is the dominant source of illegal fentanyl transported to the U.S., with cartels increasingly manufacturing and distributing their own versions of the drug.
